Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Chinese Television and things less hilarious

Chinese television is hilarious!
I rarely ever watch TV at home or anywhere, I think it's a huge waste of time and I get too fidgety. But I flippped on the TV here in my room a few times while preparing my lesson plans for school and have been fabulously entertained!
The first show I saw was Chinese Teen American Idol with a Chinese dark skinned man doing his best to imitate Mike Tyson. Flexing every major muscle group, let me tell ya. I was rolling of the bed laughing. Thankfully he didn't bite the reporters ear off when he lost. =)
After that I saw a rousing ping-pong tournament videotaped in a stadium as large as the Tacoma Dome. There must have been 5,000 fans cheering on two ping-pongers! That was almost as entertaining as the noodle-eating contest. (Which was appropriately followed by a creative heart burn commercial.)
If that doesn't get you excited there's always the Chinese soap operah: two pretty Chinese girls vying for the attention of one handsome soldier (it's hard to resist a man in uniform). They spend alot of time playing coy, flirting with their fans and such, then one of them just happens to meet him in a bamboo field. They declare their passionate love for eachother, but he chokes on the noodles she brought him for dinner!
So she runs home to get her Daddy who has been arguing all day with a merchant over the price of rice. Oy Vey!
and that is when I changed the channel. The commercials with children in them are adorable. Half the commercials use children to sell something, which I think is effective because they are too sweet. Chinese people hold children very dear because they are only allowed to have one child.
Walking around the city in Chang Zhi or Beijing I do not see many children. It feels strange to see no little people, no "tiny's" as Kym or Cerra would say =)
Out of the thousands of people that walk by everyday, I only see one or two toddlers. I understand why they have to limit their population, but I miss seeing children and wonder what it will be like in a few years when there is an entire generation of people who were once "the only child".
They might turn out spoiled and demanding like Americans =) j.k.
Ah, our American'ness comes out so strongly here: the good, the bad, and the pitiful.
I LOVE America, I am very proud to be an American, but we can be so demanding.
I get embarrassed and secretly angry when I watch these sweet Chinese people bending over backwards to accommodate us (my American teaching team) and we have the gall to complain about minor inconveniences.
Please pray for me because I believe that if we bear Christ's name we ought to be the humble servants doing and saying everying in love.
But not everyone on my team feels that way. I'm not sure what to do about it, besides pray.
If you have any advice I would love to hear it! =)
Until then keep well and beware the Chinese Mike Tyson!

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